Unique projects and ideas for home schooling families including links to sites that offer free curriculum and ideas for home schoolers.

Monday, May 12, 2008

The Cost of Home Schooling Part 1

With the nationwide concern over the cost of gasoline and food, it stands to reason that many of us don't have as much buying power as we might have had just a few months ago. This is especially true for home schoolers. Home schoolers often live on one income, which can result in a tighter budget, with or without the growing concerns around the world. Because we live on less money, we have to be even more willing to get up, get moving, and figure out how to make our lives abundant with what we have.

First of all, don't try to hide your budget issues from your children. How do you think that so many children grow up thinking that money grows on trees? The majority of children are not privy to grown up budgeting concerns. Therefore, money just seems to appear when they need it, or not, and that's the way it is until they grow up, get married, and find themselves in a financial mess. Since we are home schoolers, and like to be different, why not make our children a little more aware of what goes on behind the bank account? When you don't have the money for something, be honest and say, "I'm sorry, but I just don't have enough money right now." It's that simple. If your children are old enough to understand, you might swallow your pride and continue by saying, "I don't have the money for that right now, because we had an enormous electric bill this month." Of course, your explanation has to suit each individual situation, but being honest helps your children to understand that there is not an endless supply of funds, that you will take care of their needs to the best of your ability, and that being broke can be a time of creativity, rather than a time of tragedy. In a sense, hard times is when we are most fortunate to be home schoolers, because we can turn our budget deficits into scores of free lessons in home economics, health, science, social studies and much more.

Our focus today is on food. Home schooling increases your grocery needs, because the children are home to eat all day, rather than after school hours. For beginning home schoolers, the growing grocery bill and the need to prepare so many meals can get overwhelming. The good news is, there is free curriculum in your kitchen. What skills does one need to be able to follow a recipe? One must read, measure, understand basic fractions, temperature, time, and following directions. Recipes can be copied by children for copywork, which is reading, writing and spelling practice. If you need a new recipe, look it up online or at the library, and have the children copy it very neatly, emphasizing that if you can't read the recipe, the food will not turn out correctly. So, if you can afford to cook, you can afford to homeschool.

Look around your kitchen, or make a list of some of the items that you would miss if you did not have the money to buy them. Then, go to your favorite search engine, such as google.com, or ask.com, and enter search words such as: "how to make your own baking mix". A wealth of websites will pop up with free recipes that you can use to save money, have better quality products for your family, and give you something fun and useful to do with the children. My favorite website for just this purpose is www.budget101.com. I keep a three ringed binder with loose leaf paper for copying and taking notes that I find online or in books that are borrowed so that I can use the recipes and ideas later. *Hint.....this also saves on printer ink, and gives your children some valuable writing practice as mentioned before.

The reality is that this lifestyle will help you save money, but will not make your life more convenient. Instead of popping a meal in the microwave that you can serve within five minutes, you are going to spend far more hours in the kitchen. I, personally, do not mind this, as I look at cooking and baking the same as I look at a craft project. I love to work with my hands and I love to make my own products. The secret is organization. If you know that you are going to be tied up with music lessons and soccer games in the evening, then get the components for a good supper either ready, or partially ready as soon as you finish serving and cleaning up after breakfast. Even if your husband is not the kind of man that cares about having dinner as soon as he gets home, you can use his usual arrival hour as sort of a curfew for yourself. This is when you can have all of your cooking and baking finished and ready for the table. It's all right if you have to reheat the meal later. The goal is to have it ready, so that you can enjoy the rest of your evening, and not feel pressed to order pizza or hit the drive through. As soon as you get up in the morning, decide what you are going to serve for supper. Do you need to thaw out meat, do you need to put beans or soup in the slow cooker? Forgetting to thaw out our main dish has been the cause of most of the pizza deliveries at my house.

Many of my favorite home school blogs and websites feature frugal recipes, so I'm not going to do that here, but keep in mind that if you have a kitchen that is well stocked with basic baking supplies such as flour, oil, baking powder, etc. you will be able to make more meals than you ever thought possible, and will find yourself needing fewer and fewer items at each grocery store trip. Your children will reap many educational benefits, besides learning the art of frugality and creativity when money is tight.

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About Me

Homeschooling mother of four, wife to one, author of Laurel Santiago Unit Studies for the Homeschool series. Founder of The Sparklers Baton Twirling Corps of Monahans, Texas, leader of our local homeschool Girl Scout troop, co-leader of the Monahans Homeschool Group, and President of the Sands Art Association.